riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

Entry tags:

introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Dragosta celebration
when: The month of September.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

dragosta

In the days leading up to September 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Dragosta. This holiday is in celebration of romantic love, and seen as a time of the year for Quarantine residents to try to find someone special to cuddle up with in preparation for the cold winter months. Romantic love is highly valued in Riverview Quarantine, as it can foster an incredible sense of wellness and belonging, and is often the cornerstone of found families as well as biological ones. While there are no official city-sponsored parties, there are various holiday traditions and a paid day off on September 8th so anyone who wants to indulge in them with their loved one can do so.

a celebration of romantic love

Rather than anything structured and organized by the city, Dragosta is a celebration usually left up to the citizens of the city to organize for themselves - there are a few traditions that many businesses (obviously) capitalize on, mainly the tradition of special date nights with small gifts exchanged for people who've already matched up or want to. There are also various singles dances intended to help people without partners find someone to share the special holiday with, and a tradition among the various magic users in the city of preparing soul mate potions and spells intended to help people find the person they're meant to be with.

i. soulmates

Almost as soon as it hits midnight on August 31st, booths and street corner vendors are popping up all around the city offering various magical potions and spells in little rows of bottles. The number of types are overwhelming, with a different concoction available for every type of magic that exists across thousands of different worlds. But the purpose of every single bottle and its contents is exactly the same: to help you find love. Specifically, these are the traditional magics that promise to give anyone who uses them the ability to find or identify their soulmate.

These little bits of magic can have various effects on the person using them (reminiscent of the soulmate trope in fiction), depending on the type of magic and the person who prepared them, and the options are almost endless. There are a few comfortable standbys, though, that pop up pretty much every year:

● Rainbow Potion: Tiny bottles of a soft rainbow-colored potion that affects the vision. Once drunk, the potion will remove the partaker's ability to see in color until the first time they meet their soulmate after ingestion, then all the colors will come flooding back.
● Time Spell: Purchasing a time spell will get you a little vial of liquid with a tiny hourglass inside. Pouring out the liquid and turning the tiny hourglass will result in the appearance of a timer counting down on the partaker's skin somewhere - like a moving tattoo, it will count down the days, hours, minutes, and even seconds until the person will meet their soulmate for the first time after the spell is initiated.
● Red Thread: Some residents might've heard of the legend of the red thread of fate, a red thread that is tied between the ankles or little fingers of two people destined to fall in love. Tiny jars with a delicate red thread attached to a note (the contents of which are unreadable) are sold to invoke this legend. Once opened, the user should tie the red thread around their smallest finger on the left side and a red thread only that person and their soulmate can see will appear, tying them together. It may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
● Ink Potion: Small vials of a mysterious black liquid are one of the more common offerings - this liquid, once carefully spread on a portion of the partaker's skin, will result in a tattoo-like marking in a particular shape, that matches the marking that magically appeared on their soulmate!

While these are the most common types, there are almost infinite numbers of other types of potions, spells, and magics intended to help people find their soulmates, of varying type and quality.

A Few OOC Guidelines:
● Soulmate potions/spells can be used multiple times with different partners, and the effect can last as long (or as briefly) as you want it to.
● Since there is a wide variation of different types of potions/spells, they can vary in effectiveness. Feel free to use this prompt for either serious shipping or silly pairings for comedic effect.
● There is no compulsion involved in this prompt. The potions/spells will only show the character who their supposed soulmate is, not compel them to fall in love with the other character.
● Because there is no compulsion or alteration of behavior involved, and all effects are temporary and mildly annoying at most, characters ARE allowed to use them on other characters without asking. If your character wouldn't take one of the potions/spells, one of their friends can definitely spike their drink with a potion or use a spell on their behalf. Also, only one party has to use the potion/spell in order for it to work, both parties do not have to partake, though it is up to player discretion how heavily affected the person who did not partake is.
● A long list of trope ideas and variations can be found here. I've only included specific potions/spells for the most common ones I've seen, but please go as wild as you'd like with the types of potions and effects they have, so long as everyone involved is on the same page.
● Mod questions and plotting regarding this prompt can be found here.

ii. singles dances

All around the city, various businesses are hosting and sponsoring singles dances. These dances are an ancient tradition of Dragosta, originating from the reality of a very early group of displaced arrivals. Observed since the founding of Riverview Quarantine, the events have grown and changed with the times, still serving the interests of the modern citizen. The dances will be advertised throughout the city and range in quality, size, and tone, but they will always have the same objective and methodology: to match people up based on chemistry on the dance floor.

All singles or polyamorous pairings/groups looking to add additional members will sign in at the dance of their choice, and attach nametags or stickers to their clothing - pink, blue, or purple to indicate their preferences in partner (female, male, or any), and a "P" or "D" for "poly" or "duo" to indicate their preference for a polyamorous match-up or only one partner. Once they've indicated these preferences, they head out onto the dance floor, where they can either seek out someone they're interested in or wait for someone to come to them. As the dance goes on, and one person approaches another (or a group or pair), the person (or people) approached can either accept or reject the advances, and after finding someone with chemistry, the happy couple (or triad, etc.) can leave the floor together.

Every person who attends and participates will receive vouchers for free dinners and discounts or gift cards for various places in the city to have a nice dinner and get a present for a new paramour, or two or three...!

iii. date nights

This one is pretty simple: restaurants, clubs, hotels, movie theatres, and anything else in the city that might even vaguely be construed as a date location will be offering romantic date night packages, discounts, and other promotions to the lovebirds of the city. There are a few highly-anticipated special events that crop up every year, though.

One of the most popular are the movies in the park, hosted on almost every night of the month, these are romantic comedies and other good date movies from dozens of realities featuring romantic stories in a multitude of different configurations. Lovers are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket and settle on the grass for a nice relaxed show, or tickets can be bought for special experiences such as the mini-deck, with romantic table settings, wine, and catering with a waiter, or the cuddlebug, where a comfortable couch is set up with popcorn and blankets for the lucky lovebirds to curl up on together. The variations are endless!

Another popular option is a retro-futuristic drive-in experience, where any type of vehicle can be driven up to a temporary drive-in diner for a meal, and then pull up to a temporary outdoor theatre. Once parked, the lovebirds can "park" - that is, cuddle and neck in the car to their hearts' content, probably instead of actually watching the movie.

For this prompt, any type of date night discount is cool to assume, or make a mingle top-level with a special event of your own imagining and earn bonus activity points!

iv. kiss and tell

Something a little different is happening during Dragosta this year - one of the magic researchers at Gramarye, who was recently married and only just returned from her honeymoon, got hit with a confusion spell by accident. A little muddled and love-drunk, she acted on her intense desire to make everyone in the city feel just as happy as her, and shared the love by whipping up a potent spell to do so. As a result, residents will see bright little glowing 'fairy lights' floating around the city throughout the entire month of September. What do the fairy lights do, though?

Two or more characters walking under one of these glowing, floating lights will get stuck for one hour, trapped inside an invisible enclosure with an approximate three foot radius. The only options are to either wait out the hour, or to kiss! Characters will know they're meant to kiss, because part of the magic spell is the sudden and intense knowledge that they should kiss in order to break free. There is no compulsion to kiss, just the knowledge that that's how to get free. What the characters won't immediately know is that any kind of kiss will work - a hand, forehead, cheek, or butterfly kiss will work just as well as a kiss on the mouth, but that will require some experimentation to find out.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up the mod-posted prompt to create a Communal Housing floor mingle. Or, if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Dragosta, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Anya Goo; image ii & iv: unknown; image iii: Raphael Grimm

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Sam smiles a little at the familiar voice coming from nowhere. He hadn't exactly met JARVIS before the whole mess with Ultron, but he knows about Vision's origin, what he used to be before he became...whatever he is now. He imagines Tony must like having him back in this form.

When Tony surfaces from the wall, Sam just holds up the hand with the red string tied around the pinky as explanation, wiggling it so the connection between them does the same. He's pretty sure Tony should be able to see it, too.]

I think this place really does have it out for us.

[Tony stares at him quizzically before his attention is pulled to Sam's waving hand. And the...thread? looped around his finger. Instinctively, his eyes follow that bright red line until he realizes it's coming towards him. He raises his hand and is still somehow surprised to see the entire line of thread move with it.]

...the hell?

[Dryly:] The thread's supposed to connect you to your soulmate.

[So, so dry.]

Although you're the second soulmate I've had this week, for the record.

Soulmate?

[If it was anyone else, Tony would just assume he was being fucked with. But Sam's sense of humor doesn't really run that way, and besides, finding a piece of thread that seems to randomly change size is a long way to go for a joke. Tony tugs on it experimentally and somehow can't bring himself to feel surprised as the string goes taught between them.

He clears his throat as he tears his eyes away from it to look at Sam himself.]

Okay, so. What now?

I mean, I'm pretty sure it's a bunch of bull, but-

[He shrugs. There's that conversation they'd been meaning to have, after all. Apparently having emotionally fraught conversations after soulmate mishaps is the theme of the week.]

You got a coffeepot here?

[That's one way to snap Tony out of his startled confusion. Even if it is just to give Sam an unbelievably dry look.]

It's me. You really need to ask that?

[And because JARVIS is still one of the best things Tony has ever managed, the coffee machine tucked into the corner hisses to life without anyone having to go near it.]

Look, everything's still a work in progress, I didn't know if you were just running out to Starbucks every hour. Or sending a robot. You could probably modify a drone to get coffee.

[The hiss of the coffeepot earns an appreciative look, though. Some Tonys don't always offer him coffee when he visits.

...okay, so maybe Sam offered himself coffee. That's a minor detail.]

I could. Or I could just always have it handy here.

[Really the only reason he didn't have a machine in his workshop back home was because Pepper had forbidden it. But Pepper isn't here.

And Tony clears his throat before that thought can get too far.]

So. This happened to you before?

Yeah, one of the potions that gives you a tattoo. I just...had it show up one day. Didn't even notice it for a few days, actually.

[Implying that he's not the one who partook of that particular potion.]

I wanted to see if doing it myself would come up with the same result, maybe lend any sort of credibility to this nonsense.

And?

[He's not sure if being attached to him means it's more credible or less. But rather than focus on it, Tony wanders over to where the coffee machine is almost done. He's reasonably sure he has more than one cup around here somewhere.

The fact that the thread stretches to move with him is still weird, for the record.]

Doesn't having more than one soul mate kind of defeat the purpose anyway?

Well, yeah, that's kinda what this whole experiment proves. Like, how can you even have more than one soulmate? And let's be real, if you got paired up with someone you'd never seen before, then would you really decide to fall madly in love with them? That's way too Romeo & Juliet for me.

[Basically, it had been an idle curiosity to see if the thread would lead him to Stephen or someone completely different. As it turns out, it's the latter.]

What, are you saying you're not madly in love with me? I'm hurt, Wilson.

[Tony flashes him a quick smirk over his shoulders as he pours out two mugs and wanders back in Sam's direction to hold one out to him. It's an easy deflection from the fact that he's honestly feeling kind of weird about the whole thing. But Sam seems to just be his usual unflappable self, so Tony shrugs.]

So it's some kind of joke thing. Like fortune-telling or whatever. Find your soulmate!

[He practically buries himself in his coffee before he can sound too disgruntled.]

If hair be wires, black wires grow on his head, [is Sam's oblique sarcastic response, continuing the Shakespeare theme. God only knows what he means by that, but-]

I'd say more a hoax than a joke. 'Cause if you're in love with someone and you buy one and it leads you to them, then it's only what you expected, right? Although it'd probably make them more money if it led to the wrong person, because then you'd just have to keep buying them till you got the right result.

[Sam sips his coffee thoughtfully.]

You always struck me as too jaded to be the soulmate type.

Edited 2017-09-15 00:59 (UTC)

[One eyebrow lifts over the rim of Tony's cup, both at the quote and the description.]

Who says I'm not? I just think it's a weird thing to try to sell people.

[At least with the whole visual thing added. If it was just a random 'potion' that did jack all, Tony would roll his eyes and ignore it. This is a much more obvious game, and it annoys Tony when he can't see the purpose of that kind of thing.

And maybe he's a little offended that someones making a game of it at all. Not that he's going to admit it.]

[Wow, Stark, he can't quote a sonnet at you? Rude.]

Let's be real, people will sell anything if they think there's a market. Someone comes up with a magic potion, decides hey, people wanna buy it when they're looking for a date during the festival devoted to magic love, and suddenly it's a tradition and there's a whole miniature industry. You just think it's weird 'cause we don't have magic back home.

[Yeah, Sam can't figure out how the magic effect works, but he's not stressing out about it. Maybe there's a reason for the connections that were made, or maybe it's completely random. Or maybe somewhere in between.]

[Tony makes a face at him in return. And yeah, maybe that's part of it. Or most of it. There are very few things Tony can't figure out at least partially, and running into one of them repeatedly is annoying.

But still. Literally selling love?]

Well you're the one who bought it, so you tell me. Feel like you got your money's worth?

Hey, it was for science. [Sam points at Tony. If anyone here is likely to understand that, it's Tony Stark.] I needed a bigger sample size.

And besides, that's a hell of a loaded question, don't you think? [He laughs and shakes his head.] I'm not gonna say that you aren't worth the money I spent on it.

[And okay, that wasn't quite what he meant, but it still catches Tony off guard enough that he gives a few rapid blinks.]

Uh, thank you. I think.

[Doesn't take long for him to rally though, a smirk settling into place like it's the easiest expression he can pull out at the moment.]

But everybody knows it isn't science until you take notes, Wilson. Where's your data?

[He knows it's not, but he's also seen enough glimpses of his self-esteem through the cracks in the mask he wears to not want to inadvertently insult him, or even imply that he's worthless.

-And, let's be real, everyone knows that a smirk is always the easiest expression for Tony to pull out. It's pretty much the default Tony Stark look.]

Oh, I must've left my notebook at home. [Sam rolls his eyes.] Something something experimenting innuendo. [He waves a hand vaguely. Sometimes he doesn't feel like actually putting that much work into coming up with creative wordplay, okay? Just use your imagination, Tony.]

Oh honey. [So very deadpan.] Talk dirty to me.

[The expression clears into something thoughtful, though, as Tony leans back against the worktable an folds his arms across his chest.]

Seriously, though. Is this like those bubble things? Do we need to do something about it?

Mm, I don't know if you could handle it.

[His voice is almost a purr, and Sam has to remind himself that's not what he came here for (probably).]

Well, I can tell you that the same method doesn't work for this, but if you really wanna try...

[Sam, no.]

[Tony can't help a smile quirking across his face at both the tone and the suggestion, and he almost begins to take a stop forward before he makes himself stop.]

I thought we were going to talk about this?

[He doesn't look particularly pleased by the idea. But just continuously distracting themselves isn't going to help either.]

I oughta be concerned if you're being the responsible one.

[But he's right, and Sam just sighs and takes a drink of his coffee. Two talks in a week is Very Trying.

Speaking of which-]

Full disclosure, I'm kinda in a thing. [Vague handwave. Please don't make him say the r word, Tony.] But it's open, so.

-and, yes, it's a recent development, I haven't been hiding it from you all along.

[Not that Sam's really the kind of guy to do that.]

[Tony just. Blinks. Okay, that is not a thing he saw coming. And...does put a few things in perspective.

He clears his throat and shifts a little. Like he's any better with talking about these things.]

Okay, so. This, [he gestures between them,] is just occasional screwing around? Friends with benefits?

[That sounds so weird. God, he's too old for this.]

[Sam would like to say it's not a thing he saw coming, either, but he's really just been in denial about it.]

Pretty much, yeah. [He has a lot of snarky thoughts, but doesn't voice any of them.] That work for you?

introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

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